Keepers of Knowledge
by Whitetorch
Summary: Blood dripped off of a young boy's chest as he struggled to escape the nearby calls of villagers. Moving one hand away from his wounds, he leans against one of the first trees of the thickening forest to hold his weakening strength, willing himself from fear, he made his way deeper through the trees. Quickly getting lost between the entwining woods, the boy felt a faint pulse...
1. Chapter 1

Blood dripped off of a young boy's chest as he struggled to escape the nearby calls of villagers. Moving one hand away from his wounds, he leans against one of the first trees of the thickening forest to hold his weakening strength, willing himself from fear, he made his way deeper through the trees. Quickly getting lost between the entwining woods, the boy felt a faint pulse enter his body, energizing every cell that it went through, calling him towards it origin. Flinching at the sudden feeling, the boy looks in the direction it came from, fear being washed away from the pulse. Curiosity washing into his young mind as he changes course to the origin. Another pulse washes through him, this time stronger, it feels like a voice that calls for him while it goes through his body. Picking up his pace, he makes his wave to whatever is causing this feeling. Pushing some small branches to the side, the boy enters a small clearing, the pulse that he was feeling slowly shifted into the feeling of a heartbeat the resonates inside of his body. Looking around the clearing the boy final focus on a large tree in the center, the tree is large even for Hi no Kuni standards. Slowly making his way over to the tree, he feels the heartbeat grow stronger, almost if it's the heartbeat of the tree. Placing a bloodied hand on the tree, nothing could have prepared him for what happened next. The heartbeat fade from his body as symbols began to grow over the entire length of the tree. Within a few seconds the blinding light of the symbols changed to a soft blue that seemed almost welcoming. loud creaks and groans were heard as the tree suddenly began shifting, to the right of the boy a doorway started to appear from within the tree. Walking over the the doorway he watched in awe as it slowly started come out of the tree. With no handles to open it he places his hand to push it open only for the bright scripts to appear again, the bright light slowly faded once more to the soft blue like before, but it was also followed by a click coming from inside the door. With a tilt of his head and a slight push on the door, it opened to reveal a staircase descending below the earth, turning back to look back into the woods, he remembered why he ran into them, to hide. Descending down in the steps the doors behind him closed with a subtle click of the lock going back into place, with a sigh of relief, the boy continues down the steps to adventure through what he found. Reaching the bottom of the steps, lights along the wall flickered into existence, giving a faint orange glow down the hallway he just reached. Looking down it he noticed another double door at the end of the hallway, walking over to it, he pushes it open, his nose was immediately assaulted by the smell of old wood, paper, and ink. Opening his eyes after flinching from the light, the boy gazed down into the room he was now in. Eyes widened at the sight before him, the room was larger than the hokage monument and looked to be two stories tall, he was on a balcony with stairs to his left, but it wasn't the size that was breathtaking, it was the fact that the whole room was one of the largest libraries in existence. For one, the boy loves books, but due to the fact that he could never get any, he never read any, but now he had his a lot of them, so it was like a dream came true. Quickly walking down the steps he first set his plan to explore the room. Following the wall around he found a few rooms that were off to the side, a kitchen, dining, and living area; one large master bedroom; and lastly, a very welcoming study. He didn't know what could be so familiar about the study but he looked around through it. His first impression of the room was that it was very messy compared to the rest of the building, there were scrolls upon scrolls that were thrown haphazardly around, covered with a thin layer of dust. However, something that was open on the desk caught his attention, it was a bloodied note, curiously walking over to it he picked it off the desk. The blood already dried within the paper, he ignored it and looked at the one line in the center 'Dear our loving son: Naruto Namikaze-Uzumaki' "What? who is this person? their name is basicly mine!" questioned Naruto out loud, "Well, since it looks like they haven't found the letter yet, I guess that means they won't mind if I read it."

'Dear Naruto,

By now you should already be a Jounin or eighteen years old -' "Ooops" '- Sarutobi must have told you of your heritage and you found the directions to here from the house. This is the Namikaze library and everything in it is now yours, the safe that holds our families - the Namikaze's and the Uzumaki's - clan scrolls are held in the safe in the study, behind our family photo, open it with your blood when you get a chance. I wish there could be more for me to say but my time is running short, Kushina's life is fading and I need to seal the fox, I'm sorry for putting such a burden on you and all I ask is you save this world from the man in the mask, he will come again

-With love,

Your father: Namikaze Minato, The Yondaime Hokage

"Huh, this Naruto person must be really cool!" he turned to look around the office to notice a large photo on the wall, in it were two people: One was a man who had spiky blonde hair with two bangs going down the side of his face, he had a white haori with orange flames at the bottom, underneath it he wore a Konoha flack jacket underneath that was zipped up. Next to him was a woman with fiery red hair and wore a simple green maternity dress, with her stomach bulging out. Below it was a simple engraving, 'The Namikaze-Uzumaki family' "Her hair looks so pretty!" they boy shouted out loud, completely oblivious to the facts he should be noticing. With a few more seconds of admiration he pulled away the photo to show a large safe with no handles, looking down at his still bloodied hand he place it upon the safe and watched as the safe opened revealing five large scrolls and a few other smaller ones, "huh, thats silly, why did he make it so you just needed blood to open it? thats like, no security at all!" after questioning the Yondaime's sanity he digged through the scrolls, picking up the first one he examined the scroll's title "Jinton - Swift release, I wonder what that is." he shrugged as he put the scroll off to the side for another time, picking up the next one it looked priceless, along the sides it had golden foxes engraved along the sides and the main colour was a deep blood red with occasional white mixed in, it also had another smaller scroll attached to it with a small title that read "Blood binding ritual of the fox: notes? why is there notes about this scroll?" his mind racing with curiosity the boy opened up the smaller scroll "the ritual enhances the body with... blah blah blah boring boring ... becomes extraordinarily strong due to this, Cool!" he read out loud skimming over most of the details, without looking further more into the scroll besides how to activate it, he tossed the notes off to the side, ignoring the large warning side at the bottom that read 'this ritual can only affect those younger than six years of age and for an unknown reason changes the gender of the individual, this ritual has only been performed successfully once.' walking out into the hallway with the scroll he rolled it out in its entirety and walked into the center, two circles lay outside the larger center circle and as he sat in the large one seals along the entire length of the paper started to glow with a faint purple. With an eager grin across his face he rubbed his still bloodied hands together placed them into the two smaller circles outside the center one, the effect was instantaneous as the seals started to slowly glow brighter as the shifted off the paper onto his body, covering him from the neck down in seals, after setting in place the glow lessened and faded until the black marks covered across his entire body, "well that was easy." he started simply but as soon as that left his mouth the seals started to glow once more and the boy felt like hot magma was coursing through his veins. After a few moments of endurance, the boy passed out on the floor.

Waking up once more in the hallway he looked down at the now blank paper scroll below him, with as shrug he got up to roll it back up. Placing the scroll back in the safe he reached into the safe to look at the next of the five large scrolls only to be interrupted by a low rumble in his stomach, "I need food!" he shouted, too hungry to notice the slight pitch change in his voice he ran off to where he remembered the kitchen was, only hoping there was at least something that was there that he knew how to make. He opened the cupboard to a mouthwatering sight, the entire pantry was filled with ramen, every single one! "Wow, some of these are the super deluxe kind too!" quickly picking his selection he boiled some water and waited impatiently for three minutes before wolfing down the entire bowl in a matter of seconds. With a satisfying sigh, he leaned back against the chair in bliss, patting his now full stomach only for it to be interrupted once more with another bodily urge. Rushing out of the kitchen in an attempt to find a bathroom he made his way down the halls. Upon finding his destination in a matter of seconds, running at speeds an ANBU would have trouble with he made his way to the toilet to relieve himself... "ITS GONE!" he- She shouted at the top of her lungs noticing finally one of the aftereffects of 'his' own ignorance "But? where did it go?" not in the mood for questions she finished up her business and left back for the study, intent on finding answers. Looking back at the scrolls again she quickly forgot her previous question upon seeing her reflection in the steel of the safe, her hair was now straighter, longer, and red like the woman in the picture only with a few short spikes that came out around the tops, in addition, every single strand of hair seemed to be met with blonde at the end, with a gasp she ran her hand through her hair but stopped when she felt something in her hair, looking closely she grabbed whatever it was only to finally recognise the two fox ears hidden in her hair, with a laugh she played with them for a bit before looking back down at her skin, noticing that all of the seals that were once across her entire body, starting back at her own face she gasped at the last changes she noticed, her whisker marks were gone and her eyes changed slightly, they resembled the man in the picture more. With a smile she turned back to the three scrolls left in the safe, picking through them he read the titles: "Namikaze Fuinjutsu, Uzumaki Fuinjutsu, and Uzumaki bloodlines?" Pondering over the new discoveries she left the scrolls in the study and moved back to the library, attempting to find out what she could learn on Fuinjutsu.

Meanwhile in the Hokage's office...

"What do you mean the trail stopped?" the Sandaime asked of Tsume Inuzuka, "Like I said, I followed the scent of the boy through the woods, but it stops at this one tree, However Kuromaru also picked up another scent, one thats been gone for a couple of years: Minato Namikaze's." Hiruzen's attention was completely on the clan head after she made that statement, his worry grew and so did some of his fear, "Are you sure of this?" She nodded, "Positive, its old, but the area has his name written all over it." the Hokage accepted this answer, 'What is this place Minato?' "Take me there at once." With a nod, the group left towards the clearing.

Five minutes later...

"This is where the trail goes cold Hokage-sama..." Tsume announced to the man, "There is some blood on the tree but other than that - nothing." the woman shamefully lowered her head, the best tracker in the city lost a trail of a five year old. The Hokage let out a long sigh. "I want one ANBU stationed here every day, Understood?" With an agreement from them he turned back to look at the tree, 'I hope you are safe Naruto, wherever you are'

Three months later, inside the library...

"THIS IS THE BEST!" shouted the young girl - although, 'he' has yet to realize the change yet - as she was reading through a scroll of beginner fuinjutsu, the art may be boring for some, but the young girl was absolutely fascinated by the subject. She never put away the book she was working on, the only putting it down every once in a while to go back and read up on subject that were needed, from chakra to jutsu, although there was no room to try the jutsu, and the front gate was mysteriously locked, so she just ended up mostly practicing her fuinjutsu. Although, at the moment she just took of her resistance seal for the first time, to get use to the speed and strength without it on. Running through the halls she ran in through a taijutsu section, pausing for a moment to look over some, she pulled out a book on Goken only for a scroll that was lying on the top of the books to fall to the floor. Curiously picking it up to look at the title only for her eyes widen as if she struck gold - 'Beginner Uzumaki Kenjutsu'. Squealing in delight she brought the scroll with her over to the reading area - a large section of the the southwest corner of the library - and jumped on top of the nearest open couch, as many of the others were covered in books, and opened up the scroll to begin her second best studies yet. It was as she opened the scroll that a note fell out of the scroll,

"Naru-chan, Mina-kun recommended I put away my sword while you were still an infant just in case you decided to explore the house. Since you might have wanted to start training kenjutsu while I wasn't around I left this note with the scroll so you can find my, well now yours 'ttebane, sword on your own. Its in the Uzumaki vault near the reading area in the library.

Love, Mom.

Grinning like a madman the girl ran towards the large Uzumaki emblem on the wall, "I'm an Uzumaki so my blood should work too right?" she asked out loud. Not waiting for the answer that wouldn't come, she bit down on her thumb and wiped her palm across it before placing it down upon the spiral. With a satisfying 'click' the spiral began to open to reveal a nearly empty room, all that was in the room was a table, a small piece of paper, and a long object wrapped in a beautiful crimson silk. Picking up the paper first, she read the small note, "Her name is Benihime, take care of her. - Mom" looking up the the wrapped object she picked it up with ease, and unwrapped the silk. One look upon the blade was all she needed, "I think I'm in love..." she announced with... lust? One could give countless reasons as to why a young girl of five had such a tone in her voice, but all was forgotten as the girl spent the next few hours hugging the beautiful blade before actually learning how to use it. Taking another look at the blade, it was a rather short blade, perfect for her size, the end of the hilt bent off to the side at a small angle and had a red tail on the end, the grip was woven with black cloth, the same durable texture as the cloth that was attached to the black and crimson engraved sheath. The guard had another tail of red thread woven around below it, the guard itself was a dull gold that melded in with the straight blade. The blade itself was also another work of art, it gave of a graceful aura of power and when held up to the light it gave off a slight red-ish reflection, and to end it off the very point of the two-foot blade was a flat angle in parallel with the end of the hilt. All in all, the young girl couldn't help herself to go back to hugging the sword with renewed passion. Finally deciding to learn how to use it she picked up the sword and tied the crimson sash that was connected to the sheath around her waist so it rested on the small of her back with the hilt pointing out to the left side, for easy access for her right. Finally satisfied with it she left the vault and closed it behind her and made her way over to the reading area to begin her new studies, if only she could find out a way to practice the sword in a set area.

As if it was fate, destiny, or the sheer improbability of rolling a hundred sided die while jumping off the side of the - well you get the idea, that the sword caught onto a certain scroll and pulled it out onto the floor. Hearing the tatter of the scroll behind her she turned around she picked up to put it back into place, but it just oh so happen to be that the name caught her eye as she put it back into place 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu' and it wasn't until she was another five steps further to her destination when the thought finally hit her, "wait... Bunshin?" she wondered out loud as the rusty - somehow, still rusty - clogs of her brain started slowly grinding together. Retracing her five steps she arrived at where she was five steps ago, and took out the scroll. Quickly opening the scroll and reading it out loud, "The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is a B-Ranked Kinjutsu that derive into various other jutsus such as the Bunshin Daibakuha and has many various uses for Kenjutsu users since the physical copies also form with the weapon(s) in hand. It is also useful for scouting and recon uses as whens the clones dispel - via death of release the memories of the clone return to the user. - however it recommended to avo-" Naruto stopped reading as she read through the benefits. Only moments later did the implications come to her... "This is like [A/N if this was subbed, that 'is like' and any other from here on out should be thought of her saying 'ttebane], the best jutsu in existance of existence-ness!" the girl shouted in pure joy. "Lets see... handsigns... only one? LIKE, CAN THIS GET ANY BETTER!" she squealed again before quickly going to work in learning her new and alltime favorite jutsu...

Two years, two months, and Twenty Two days later...

"Benihime-chan, I'm trying to sleep, we'll play more in a bit." the eight year old naruto talked out loud from her dream, "We'll become the best Ninja ever!" at that note she fell off the bed and into the towers of books that were lying around near the couch. She gave up sleeping in the bedroom since the couches were almost as comfortable. Groggily rubbing her eyes she noted the mess of the study area with a quick one-handed hand sign she sighed as and fell back into the couch as the ten clones began cleaning up the newly formed mess. Opening her eyes to look up at the ceiling of the building when another thought came back to her, "I havn't been outside in three years..." with a small chuckle, she pulled herself off the couch and made her way up the stairs, 'I'm an idiot...' she groaned to herself as she looked upon the simplest locking seal for the gate that locked her in for last three years, "I can become a ninja if I never leave this place. I should probably tell Ji-chan where I've been." she mumbled to herself as she finally opened the first door and looked upon the dusty stairs that was lit by the morning sun leaking through the cracks of the tree's outer layer. Its was then another thought hit her as she grabbed onto her long red hair, which now reaching below her rear, "I should use a genjutsu-fuin to cover up what I look like. With a simple plan of action she swiftly went back inside to round up most of her materials and packed up and dressed. With the genjutsu-fuin fully drawn out and in place next to her resistance seal on her chest she activated it and skipped up to the door. Lock in place, Identity hidden, and supplies on her back, she made her way up the steps opened the outer shell of the tree.

The clearing was exactly the same as it was exactly the same as she remembered it from three years prior. The only one difference was the sleeping ANBU that was lying against the tree taking a nap, 'Thats weird, I never thought I'd see an on duty ANBU sleeping...' "Hey mister." Naruto called out as she walked over to the masked person. "Neko-san? What are you doing sleeping out her?" Naruto asked poking between words. The ANBU was quickly startled by the presence of the 'blond boy' 'This kid has absolutely no presence I can detect.' Naruto, with the genjutsu assuming a short haired blond boy with three whisker marks on either cheek, was still poking the ANBU when she reached for the tanto on her back, "Who are you, state your business!" with a large grin, Naruto assumed the 'Nice Gai Pose' and introduced himself, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I'm going to be the best ninja ever 'ttebane!" he shouted at the 'what a weird ki- wait? wait wait wait, Naruto Uzumaki? the Kyubi kid that went missing here three years ago?' "Are you actually Naruto Uzumaki?" the ANBU asked.

"Well, yeah, I just said so didn't I?" she responded rubbing the back of her head in confusion, "Your presence is requested immediately with the Hokage." the ANBU assumed full business mode when she said this. Placing a hand on the young one's shoulder they quickly disappeared via shushin.

Meanwhile in the Hokage's office...

Hiruzen was currently lying back in his comfortable chair smoking on his pipe, although his mind was never the same these days, the disappearance of the young Uzumaki put a damper on the old man's life. He was glad that the amount of paperwork he was getting was enough to at least bring his mind away from the boy. Feeling the oncoming presence of an ANBU he turned his gaze out to the city and stood up, with a light 'poof' of the shushin arrival, Naruto and the Cat-ANBU entered the room, "Hokage-sama, I found this one while I was on duty at the last known spot of the the Uzumaki child." The Hokage took in another breath as he nodded, but the words hit him full force, 'this one?' he questioned in his mind, only sensing a single presence behind him. He slowly turned around to question the ANBU but his mind stopped when his eyes fell upon the eight year old blond whiskered figure before him, "Ji-chan!" the 'boy' yelled take a step with open arms towards the elder hokage, but what was not expected from everyone in the room was the boy to vanish as his foot hit the ground only reappearing a microsecond later with her arms around her grandfather figure. "Guess what! I learned so much stuff in there is was awesome! There was some really cool stuff in there too!" as the mind of the elder man caught back up to him, "Hold on a minute Naruto, tell me, where have you been?" he asked, the younger child laughed and rubbed the back of her, "I was in the library!" Silence. The room was so quiet that a senbon would be loud enough to wake up even a drunk Jiraiya. "...what?" the Hokage asked simply dumbfounded by the blonde's answer, "Oh! No, no, not the one in town, it was some guy named 'Minato Namikaze'." Naruto stated simply, compleatly forgetting everything she learned about the Yondaime. "Oh yeah! That reminds me do you know someone named Naruto Namikaze-Uzumaki?" I have a lot of his stuff and he seems like he would be a pretty cool guy!" by now the three ANBU in the room were simply dumbfounded, luckily by this time the hidden ROOT member left to tell his master that their weapon was found again, so they did not hear that groundbreaking revelation. "WHAT?!" the three ANBU yelled simultaneously. But quickly returning to their duties they made their presence known as they began sealed off the room from any outside source. As the seals started to glow Naruto looked around and memorised every single one, but something caught her eye. "Ji-chan." Naruto announce, gaining the elder's attention, "What is it?"

"That privacy seal was tampered with..." pointing to the one corner that she noticed the error. By this point the four others in the room were beyond dumbfounded, this recently returned from three years of missing child with undetectable presence, newly revealed as the Yondaime's heir, noticed an error in a vastly complex seal, they wouldn't be surprised if she began using the Hiraishin. "Oh shoot! I left the Ink on the counter!, I'll be right back in a minute." as if on queue, the child disappeared in a yellow flash, only to reappear five seconds later in surprisingly, not a yellow flash. "Naruto, what was that?" The newly returned girl, still cloaked in her illusion, turned to look at the hokage's questioning gaze before putting a finger over her mouth in a 'shh' motion before pointing to the problem she was going to fix.

A minute later, the three ANBU and Hokage sat in a couch across from the eight year old who began to answer a few of their questions, "That yellow flash thingy was a really cool thing I learned how to do from a scroll down there. But the only way I can use it is returning to the Library onto a big seal, apparently there are some smaller ones but I won't be able to use those for a long time." with a nod in acceptance from the answer the Hokage, "So why can we detect your presence?" asked the Hokage, he was genuinely curious about that, 'Minato or Kushina never had anything like that' "Hmm, I think it has to do with this big seal I have on my body, but I don't really know that much about it, Its a really really old and complex style of fuinjutsu." 'The Kyuubi seal?' the Sandaime questioned. "Would you show us it?" he asked but Naruto looked up with a hesitant gaze upon the four in the room, "Umm... Promise you won't tell anyone?" with an inquisitive glance at the young child he nodded, and turned to the other ANBU to give them a hard glance, which they nodded in return. "Alright..." Naruto said as she brought a hand over the genjutsu seal, "Fuin-kai" Naruto muttered under her breath as the genjutsu was released and her long red-blonde hair came into view, the spiky top similar to before, although she seemed an inch or so shorter. The one thing that caught everyone's eye was the beautiful sword on the girl's back. With a happy sigh as she ran her hand through her long hair. "Much better." but as she opened her eyes to the sight of three people staring and one purple haired ANBU drooling at the sight of her most precious item, she quickly brought it into her chest in a defensive hug, "Stop staring at Benihime." she shouted, which brought everyone to notice the changes in her face, a face the looked much more similar to the late Yondaime, aside from the fact that they were looking into a pair of mesmerising, glowing, feral, violet eyes. Only a short cough from the Hokage brought the three ANBU out of their gaze.

"I believe you were going to show us a seal?" The Man asked the girl she she promptly nodded before standing up. With a quick reposition of her sword she brought her hands into the tiger seal and channeled her chakra, it was then only the Hokage felt the smallest amount of chakra from the child before him, like a drop of mist otherwise dry room, but he had little time to reflect as seals started appearing all across the child that even he could make no sense of. "I see..." he reached forward to pull up the shirt the child revealing the still glowing seals stretching across her body, but what fascinated him was the entire seal structure that was also merged with the eight trigram seal of the kyuubi on her stomach. Seeing no changed he had a satisfied nod he released his grip and sat back down, "So Naruto, why did you come out now? Seeing as how you've been down there for quite some time I assume you could probably have lasted down there quite a while longer." the Sandaime asked as he watched the girl reapply the genjutsu seal. "Oh yeah! I need to join the Ninja academy so I can become a Ninja!" with obvious surprise on his face the elder Hokage nodded in agreement, "Very thoughtful of you Naruto, already planning ahead. Well, I can do that for you, It starts in a week so you came at just the right time." Naruto chuckled and rubbed the back of her head embarrassed, "Well It'll be fine! I'll graduate dead last just you wait!" Naruto announced, to the small group made way to the door, "Dead last?" the Hokage asked, and the girl turned with a grin, "Then everyone will underestimate me! See you in a week Ji-chan!" The girl said with a wave before running out the door.

A/N:

Fun, anyways, the sword Benihime is exactly like that of Urahara's Shikai, except for the sheath and for the fact that it has absolutely no abilities, its just a well crafted, very beautiful. As for a few other notes, Naruto doesn't know she's a girl simply because she is really really dense, in addition, no one else knows yet. Uhh, and yeah. I think thats it. Oh yeah, there are two pairings that I was thinking of: either _-_ or _-_ (^_^) oh yeah, my other stories will be updated probably this week, cheers!


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto, being the random, unpredictable child that she is decided to take a scenic route towards her apartment on the way back from the hokage's office. I was on this extended detour that she ran into, literally, a man who was sleeping against a tree, falling face first into the ground, 'Seriously? what's with all these sleeping people!' with a groan she got up on her elbows to rub her face, "Hey mister, do all Ninjas like to sleep in the woods or something?" questioned the girl. The stoic man held his gaze against the girl for a few moments before he turned back to look up into the sky, "Its quiet, why do you hide in an illusion?" the man asked as he turned his gaze back at the girl, red eyes glowing with three tomoe spinning wildly, "Woah, Your eyes are cool! Oh! and that because I changed three years ago and I don't want anyone to know." She said with a smile and released the seal, red eyes suddenly trapped by the sudden attention of the mystic violets of the young girl's, "I've changed too, recently, but I don't want anyone to know either." he said without knowing it but as he did he hoped the child would forget. "Hmm, ok, lets make a promise then!" she cheerfully decided and held out her pinkie finger to the man, who simply chuckled at the young girl's decision, "Sure." he said smiling. She sat down next to him to look up into the sky with him, "Hey mister, are you going to be here tomorrow?" she asked, "Itachi," he replied,

"Huh?" Naruto muttered turning to face the man's new eyes, three tomoe sharingan morphed into a three pointed pinwheel, "It's my name." he replied as a tear of blood fell from his right eye. With a smile she reached up to wipe away the tear, "You don't need to cry Itachi-nii-san I'll be here." Turning his attention back to the sky to ponder why the child was unaffected by his tsukuyomi, he placed a hand on the girl's head and gave her an affectionate pat, "Yeah, I'll be here too." He then got up to leave, "Itachi-nii-san, I'll see you tomorrow?" she asked and received a nod from the elder man. With a small giggle, she got up as well, "Naruto." she told him and turned to walk towards her apartment, "See you tomorrow Naru-imouto-chan." sending him a curious glare to the man for the nickname she only noticed a crow taking off in the distance. With a shrug she continued on her original plan.

Three days later, in the forest...

"Hey Itachi-nii-san, you're a good ninja right?" she asked her pseudo-brother as she fed him another pocky, "Hmm?" he gruntly asks the young girl. "Do you know much about using a sword?" hearing a small 'mhm' from the man as he continued to gaze at the stars, "You think you can teach me a thing or to?" with his gaze falling down to the young girl he placed two fingers on the girls forehead and turned back to the stars, still munching on the pocky in his mouth, "You don't need me to teach you, You know plenty yourself already, you can see it in the way you walk." he said after finishing his treat, "Naru-imouto-chan?" Itachi asks, "Can you keep a promise?" turning to the young girl, "Sure." she replies turning to him to listen, with a sigh he looks down into his hands, "I have a mission, and you probably won't hear about me till I'm done, but I'll be gone for a while. When Its all over can sit under a tree and look at the stars again?" he asks sharingan had subconsciously into their mangekyo as he turn to her, she simply gazed into his new eyes with a smile, "Sure." and with that he smiled, closing his eyes, he placed a kiss on the young girl's forehead, "Goodbye for now, Naru-imouto-san" and with that and a flutter of wings he was gone, but Naruto was still smiling, knowing that there was a day that they would meet again, and another where they'll sit under the stars together, "Goodbye, Itachi-nii-san."

Four days later...

The news of the Uchiha Massacre spread rapidly through the town, all the talks about what Itachi had done, but Naruto remembered his words that night, so she knew there was more to it, and she kept the smile on her face, looking forward to the day where they could sit under the night sky together in peace. But peace would not come to the young girl today, no, that peace left her the moment she walked into the classroom. It had been an uneventful day, she already knew everything that would be held for the next four years, but she had to sit through this to become a ninja, so using her great mind she came up with an idea which would simply replicate the last three years of her life, make clones to read books and sleep herself. It was exactly through this method that she managed to pass through the academy with the lowest score possible.

Hokage's office, the day after graduation...

"I would like a team consisting of Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Abarume, for a focused tracker team." Mentioned Kurenai Yuhi, one of jounin in the room, with the Hokages approval she sat back down in her chair with a smile thinking about her team. It was that moment that the famous Kakashi decided to further prove his Nara-like behaviours showing up three hours late with a simple "Yo!" the hokage turned to the man to greet him and gave a nod for his turn to speak, "I would like a team consisting of... Sasuke Uchiha, uh... Sakura Haruno, and uhh... Naruto... Uzumaki?" 'Wasn't Minato-sensei's lady friend an Uzumaki?' he wondered to himself as he read names off the list. 'Oh well, It's not like there going to pass the test anyways' "Before he could even nod his approval Kakashi was already in the window making his leave. "Approved" said the Hokage finally as the copy-ninja left the building.

Ninja Academy, the next day...

"Alright class quiet down!" asked Iruka as to get the class's attention, however, it seems that once again he has to use his 'Big-Headed jutsu' to get the classes attention, "Listen up everyone! the teams have been made up, so listen up!" Everyone in the class quickly went silent with anticipation, "Alright, first up, Team 1..." he started off, lucky for a certain sleeping girl in the room, the was a form of an alarm clock in a pink haired girl that woke her up to hear her name, "quite Sakura, and lastly, Naruto Uzumaki, your jounin will be Kakashi Hatake." announced Iruka, but the happy mood of Sakura was quickly replaced with a face of irritation, "Why do we have to be with him!?" she asked, "He shouldn't have even graduated." Turning her head to the screaming banshee, Naruto sized her up, never being one to pay attention to any of her classmates before now, 'A fangirl, how useless...' shifting her gaze over to the other member, Sasuke, to check in his appearance, 'He kinda looks like Itachi-nii-san' with a shrug she simply fell back asleep to wait for her sensei's arrival.

As luck would have it, Naruto once woke up to the sound of a pink banshee, 'Ahh, such a great alarm clock...' opening her eyes to see what the commotion is about her gaze fell upon silver, gravity-defying hair. "Team seven? My first impression of you is... well anyways, meet me on the roof." and with that he disappeared via shushin. Sakura and Sasuke, deciding that it would be best to shut up and follow, made their way out the door, Sasuke turning back to call out for a blonde to wake her up, "Hey dobe wak-" he quickly stopped taking when he noticed the empty, with a shrug, he followed after his teammate.

On the roof...

'That blonde one is interesting, dead last but has stealth levels can beat an ANBU... I should pay attention to him.' flipping to the next page of his book as he waited for his students to arrive, he suddenly felt his student approaching, well, the two that he could sense, and put his book away, "Hey! I was reading that!" called out a voice from right next to him. Kakashi quickly turned to notice Naruto crouching right next to him with an annoyed face. Masking his surprise he pulled out the book again and handed it to her, "When did you get here?" he asked with genuine curiosity, "When you pulled out your book." she responded with a smile as she grabbed the book, "Icha-Icha paradise? Huh." with a shrug she opened the book and started reading where she left off. It was then that the two other team members came out of the stairwell. "Ah, you've arrived. Good, lets begin with introducing yourselfs." he asked, being quick to question Sakura turned to him, "What do you want to know?" with a shrug he simply replied, "How about your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future and stuff like that?"

"Why don't you go first to give us an example?" asked Sasuke, "Well, my name is Kakashi Hatake, I have no desire to tell you my likes or dislikes... my dreams for the future... I never really thought about that, as for hobbies... I have a few." he introduced. "All we got was your name!" yelled an angry Sakura, "Well why don't you go first pinkie?" calming down she began, "Well my name is Sakura Haruno, my likes are..." she said gazing at Sasuke with a blush, "My hobbies are..." she once again gazed at Sasuke, only this time for a bit longer, "My dreams for the future are..." this time her face went completely red as a bit of drool came out of her mouth."My dislikes are bakas like Naruto!" she shouted glaring at the blonde who was simply tuned out reading the book with what looked to be a small blush. "Okay then, why don't you go next emo-boy." Kakashi asked as he turned his attention to the Uchiha, "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are lot's of things I dislike and don't really like anything, but I have one ambition, to kill a certain man." he finished while glaring at the floor, "Hey did you know Itachi by any chance?" Naruto asked of the boy, ignoring the looks that Kakashi was giving him, "What do you want to know about my brother" he spat out with venom, "Oooh! He was your brother? That make sense why you too look alike." Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the young blonde, trying to figure her out, not many people knew Itachi since he was on duty in the ANBU so much, "How did you know him Naruto?" the jounin asked, "Oh! He's one of my best friends!" she replied with a smile, "Ok! my turn, My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I like reading, ramen, and my two best friends Itachi and Benihime, my hobbies are drawing, eating ramen, and reading. My dreams for the future are is to become the best ninja ever!" she ended off with a large grin. "Well, thats certainly interesting. Well, in any case meet me at training ground seven at six o'clock for survival training." Curious, Sakura spoke up, "Sensei, we've done survival training before in the academy, why are we doing it again?"

With an eye smile he looked down at the girl, "Well, the difference is I'll be your opponent." and with that he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. With their teacher gone, Sasuke quickly decided to charge at Naruto to ask him questions, only to find him not there, with a dissatisfied grunt he made his way towards the exit, with Sakura following after asking for a date.

Training ground seven, the next day...

Deciding once again to try out her new pink-haired alarm clock, Naruto quickly fell asleep in the tree, and once again, it proved flawless as she woke up to the sound of the banshee screaming "You're late." Kakashi entered the clearing to notice his three students standing before him, "Well, while I was on my way here I ran into a only lady that needed help getting her cat out of a tree but then it turned out the cat was actually a missing-nin from nekogakure so I had to chase it down and capture it before it escaped the village. After I had succeeded I had to finish drafting the peace treaty to the village for capturing their most wanted criminal, and after that... well you get the idea." the reactions he got was not what he was expecting of his three students, Sasuke, as per usual, was glaring at him, Sakura, as expected, was glaring at him, and Naruto, surprisingly, was rolling around on the floor in laughter, which also brought a small smile to him underneath his mask, 'thats a first'. "Well, in any case," he continued walking over to three wooden logs in the open of the clearing and pulled out two things: an alarm which he placed on the center log, and two bells which he held up before his students, "Your task is to obtain one of these bells, if you do, you pass, if you don't, you go back to the academy." Sasuke simply assumed his smug look thinking that he could easily pass the test, Naruto was on the ground reading an orange book, and Sakura was sweating bullets, "But sensei, there are only two bells." she asked, "Oh, well thats because only two of you will pass." at that moment a single thought went through each of his students: 'Oh! I might be able to get on a team with only Sasuke! I'll have to try my best!'; 'I bet he'll give me an apprenticeship if I'm the only one who gets one.'; '...and then he moved his tongue around her pearl, hearing a gasp of pleasure from his lovely flower, he continued his work...I wonder what he's doing.'

"Well, in any case, you have until the timer is done. Begin!" upon hearing those words, Sasuke dived into the bushes to his left and Sakura her right, Naruto simply continued to read her book, but then turned her attention up to the jounin, "Psst, Sensei" she called out in a whisper, "Thats a cool idea for a teamwork test, after I put away my book I'm going to start attacking you, ok?" she asked, hiding her voice behind her book, 'She already figured out the test? Impressive, I like this one.' earning a nod from her sensei, Naruto got up and stretched, put away her book, and turned to face Kakashi in a terrible form of the academy taijutsu stance, "Ready or not! Here I come!" she called out sillily and charged the jounin. With a simple right handed hook that a genin could dodge, Kakashi decided to simply block the hit with his hand. However, that turned out to be the first mistake of the day when he felt his forearm break from strength of the punch, masking his surprise and pain he dropped his arm and looked back at the girl's face to see her mouthing 'oops, I'm sorry.' With an eye smile he shook his head and they continued their mock fight. Finally deciding to get his revenge from the first strike he got behind Naruto and held his hands in the tiger seal, "Hidden Leaf Ancient Taijutsu Supreme Technique: A Thousand Years of Death!" he called out stabbing the blonde in the rear with his fingers, sending into the nearby stream. Only then did he hear the single jingle of the bells tied to his waist, 'Well then, I think I have an Idea for when this is all over.' Deciding to test his other students he headed towards Sakura with a shushin, failing to noticed the Naruto floating on the water disappear in a cloud of smoke.

'Shit, where is he?' "Shinobi fighting lesson number two: ninjutsu." he heard from underneath him. "Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu!" A hand came out of the ground and pulled him down to so only his head was above the ground. "Let me out!" he yelled to the jounin only to find him gone. Simply sitting up in the tree, Kakashi watched as Sakura entered the scene and began to help Sasuke out of the earth. When she was finally, he decided to start his next lesson 'Shinobi fighting lesson number three: genjutsu.' "Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu." he called out into the wind and watched his students reactions. What he saw made him finalize his decision, Sasuke broke out of the genjutsu and left Sakura there to go find him. With a sigh, he ended the technique on Sakura to enter back into the clearing sitting on the posts, the timer was almost up anyways.

Leaning against the log watching Naruto read the orange book he pulled out his own copy and went back to where he was. With a ring of the alarm Sakura and Sasuke entered the clearing from opposite sides, the girl with a saddened look and the boy with a glare at Kakashi, "Well, thats too bad, looks like you guys are going back to the academy." he said with a eye smile, "I deserve to be on a team I'm the last Uchiha, you can't send me back to the academy!" Sasuke shouted at the Jounin who only shrugged in response, "Yeah! if anything you should send Naruto back to the academy, he's worthless anyways, and let me and Sasuke be on a team, there were two bells only in the first place!" hearing that accusation only made him feel better about his decision, 'Those two aren't worth the time.' with a wave he left to where he knew the real Naruto was reading a book.

"Hey Naruto, come with me." he asked of the blonde girl, gaining her attention, "where too?" she asked, receiving an eye smile in return, "How would you like to be my apprentice?" with a smile she got up and told the man to lead the way.

Hokage's office, an hour later...

"Team eight passed, they showed signs of being able to work well together, plan out attacks and used their tracking skills well." Kurenai said before turning her attention to the last jounin in the room, "Team ten passed, they showed that they can make good plans, and follow through with them well, but they're a bit on the lazy side." Asuma said announcing his team's success. It was then that the doors to the office opened to two more people, the taller man speaking up first, "Team seven failed, however I request an apprenticeship for Naruto Uzumaki." that statement got a few surprises from the jounin in the room, Kakashi was known to fail every team he's assigned but to take in an apprentice the child must have been something else. Hiruzen looked down at the smiling blonde before letting out a light chuckle, 'Its funny how he just happened to pick the child of his teacher without knowing.' "Granted." with that Kakashi bowed and motioned for Naruto to follow him, "Come on, I'll show you my sensei's favorite place to eat so we can reintroduce." With a nod of the girl, she followed him out the building.

Ichiraku ramen, a few minutes later...

"One miso ramen and one pork ramen coming right up." the older cook said with a smile, "Thanks Teuchi-Oji-san!" Naruto replied with a grin, "Anytime Naruto, its good to see you again, you to Kakashi-san." the masked man simply waved him off, "No need to be polite, you've known me for a while." with a chuckle the man went back to their orders. "So, Naruto, Shall we begin?" Receiving a nod from the girl he began, "Well, my name is Kakashi Hatake, I'm a ex-ANBU captain, I enjoy reading, being late, and being late. My dislikes are those who treat their teammates poorly and my hobbies include reading and relaxing. Lastly, I don't really have any dreams for the future. Your turn." he ended with an eye smile. The girl nodded, "My name Is Naruto Uzumaki, my likes are my two best friends Itachi-nii-san and Benihime, reading, studying, fuinjutsu, sleeping, and ramen! My dislikes include... uh, oh yeah, mean people. My dreams for the future include becoming the best ninja ever, maybe become Hokage!" she ended with a grin, "So this Benihime, who is she?" Naruto looked down at the counter to think for a moment before looking up at Teuchi and Ayame, and finaly noticing no one else around. "Can you guys keep a secret?" she asked the three of them and received nods in reply. Placing a hand over the genjutsu seal she released it revealing her true self, long red, blonde-tipped hair flowing behind her, with a few spikes still poking out of the top, her glowing and feral violet eyes and lastly the sword held in place on her back. 'A genjutsu seal? Interesting, he looks like a girl now though, I wonder if thats the reason he hides under it.' Taking the sword off her back she held it in front of her to show Kakashi, "This is Benihime, she's the most beautiful friend I've ever met!" she said with stars in her eyes. "She certainly is. So tell me, why do you hide behind that seal?" the girl looked down for another moment before replying, "thats what I use to look like, my hair and eyes changed for some reason a few years ago so I use that to look like my old self, also, I look like a fool so it help for people to underestimate me." she replied intelligently. With a chuckle in agreement, Kakashi rubbed the top of her head affectionately, "I guess it does, I'll look forward to teaching you, and maybe you can teach me a few things as well." the girl looked up to the man's eye smile with a grin, "Sure."

Mission center, a month later...

"Well, now that you have finished the minimum requirement for D-ranked missions, you're allowed to begin C-ranks, would you like to start with one now?" asked the Hokage to the two people in the room, "Yes please Hokage-sama, I'm afraid these D-ranks are tiring us out finally." with a chuckle the Hokage nodded in agreement, "very well, send in Tazuna." at that a man smelling of alcohol and depression entered, he wore a sleeveless v-neck shirt with an obi, pants and a pair of sandals. Overall, not a very impressive sight. "What, I asked for protection and all I get is a little runt and his teacher?" said the man as he took another sip of his drink straight from the bottle. "I can assure you Tazuna-san, that these two will be able to keep you safe from whatever you may encounter." with a few more choice words of a sailor under his breath he nodded, "Alright, Naruto, I'll meet you at the front gate in thirty minutes, pack for an extended mission, three to four weeks." Nodding in agreement the girl disappeared in a swirl of leaves as Kakashi turned his gaze to the man, "Shall we go?" he asked of the man. Earning a nod the two made their way to the gate.

On the road, A few hours later...

It was earlier in the day when they left which now found them in midday heading towards Nami no Kuni. Naruto walked carelessly on the right side of Tazuna, and Kakashi on the left, and for the simple amusement of themselves, they were both reading the same book, at the same exact pace. With each flip of a page Tazuna was growing slightly more irritated with the careless attitude of his two 'guards'. But luckily their time came to prove themselves when two mist ninjas came out of a puddle on the side of the road heading straight for Tazuna. Within the blink of an eye, the two nin found themselves bound against a tree with the wind knocked out of their lungs, "Good work Naruto, Stay close to Tazuna, I'm just going to ask our friends a few questions."

"Okay," replied the girl as walked over to Tazuna taking up a defensive position. After a quick interrogation, Kakashi returned to the two others, "So, Tazuna, care to tell us why two missing nin are after you? You payed for a C-ranked mission but this is obviously now at least a B-ranked mission. By now Tazuna was sweating bullets, but these two ninja were right, if they were going to protect him, they would have to tell them the truth. With a sigh, Tazuna opened up telling them all about the bridge's hope to bring prosperity to Nami no Kuni and how Gato wants to shut it down, "Well, I don't see a problem in continuing do you Naruto?" turning to his student when he asked, "Nope, I'm all good."

"Alright, lets find a place to camp for the day." After unpacking a tent, and a few ration bars Naruto made her way over to the stream to clean out her long hair, so she released the seal and began her attempt at taking out the blood from her already red hair. "So this is where you were." Kakashi said from behind her, and with the shock of not paying attention to her, she jumped in fright and promptly fell into the water, "Jeeze Kaka-sensei, don't sneak up on me like that." grumbled Naruto as she lifted herself out of the water, and with a now soaked jacked, she proceeded to take it off and put it up to dry, revealing her now chest-clinging t-shirt to Kakashi, which proudly showed off two things that should not be in place of a healthy thirteen year old boy, "Um... Naruto? Why didn't you tell anyone you were a girl?" Naruto simply turned to her sensei in confusion, "Huh? Why would I, I'm a boy." Naruto stated like it was the simplest fact in the world. With a sigh Kakashi quickly figured out the current problem of his student, "Naruto, You're a girl." he stated simply pointing at her chest. In confusion, Naruto looked down at her own breasts, content on poking them in confusion, "What do these have to do with anything?" she asked simply, to which the jounin simply buried his face into his hand, "Naruto, didn't you ever pay attention to any of the health classes in school?"

"Nope! I slept through every single day of school." she stated like it was an achievement, 'Oh boy... Time to have a fun little talk with a teenage girl about birds and bees... why did I sign up for this...' he let out a sigh as he sat down on a nearby rock, "Naruto, I think its time we have a little talk..."

With Tazuna...

Tazuna was sitting by the fire eating a nice portion of a rabbit when he was promptly interrupted by a very loud noise, "WHAT!?" he heard from over by the stream, "I wonder what that was about..." he shrugged as he went back to the meal before him.

With Naruto and Kakashi...

A very red-faced Naruto was sitting across from an Exhausted Kakashi, the girl had a lot of questions, it didn't help that she had been reading Icha-Icha paradise for the past month either, but little did he know, he probably ended up making the next coming of Jiraiya. "You good now?" he asked his student, seeing her nod in reply he stood up and made his way back to the camp, "Come back soon, you're taking the next watch remember." seeing another nod, he sighed and made his way back to the camp. It was after he left that Naruto began to come back down to earth, after a few more moments of recollection she reached over to her jacket and pulled out an orange book. A few minutes later a slight blush crept across her face as she began giggling profusely.

Nami no Kuni, two days later.

The three were walking in their usual formation, Tazuna in the middle, Kakashi on the left and Naruto on the right. Although now the two ninja had finally put away their books in light of the unknown enemies. It was when they were walking up a small hill that Kakashi heard the tell-tale signs of a sharp object traveling through the Air, so when he called out "Get down!" he least expected an absurdly large cleaver to bury itself into a tree behind them. After taking a second to recognise the sword itself, he was not surprised to see the man standing on it, "Momochi Zabuza, the demon of the mist."

"Kakashi Hatake, Konoha's Copycat ninja, a pleasure, but I'll just ask this simply, hand over the man and I'll let you and your kid go free."

"A lovely offer, but I'm going to have to decline." Kakashi replied.

"Your funeral." the man shrugged before disappearing into the mist around him, "Eight Choices: liver, lungs, spine, clavicle vein, jugular, kidneys, heart, which to pick?" a disembodied voice called out. Naruto tensed as the felt the pressure of the man fighting them, tightening her grip on the kunai she was holding she felt a shift in the mist and let the kunai in her hand fly free. Hearing the hit she let a smile erupted on her face "You little brat!" called out Zabuza as he made his appearance known from on top the water, a kunai placed deeply into his right shoulder, "Nice hit Naruto, let me take it from here." Kakashi said as he jumped onto the water. Naruto fell back into his place in front of Tazuna, watching the two jounin call out the same jutsu every time until finally Kakashi managed a subtle genjutsu of Zabuza and hit him with a water jutsu, sending him flying into a tree. Only for the kill to be taken away by two senbon finding their way into the man's neck by a hunter-nin.

"Thank you for taking care of this man, I've been following him for a while now. I'll take care of the body now." said the hunter, earning a small nod from Kakashi he watched as the hunter lifted the body up and disappeared via shushin. With the fight finally over, Kakashi promptly fell face-first into the ground.

A/N: Fun fun, felt like writing another chapter so I did, Sasuke and Sakura will reappear in time for the chunin exams, as for any other notes, none that I can remember.

Cheers!

WT


	3. Chapter 3

"You'll get a cold if you sleep out here." said a sweet voice to the blonde lying in the grass, with a groan she sat up to look at the figure before her, he had long black hair, pale skin and large, dark-brown eyes. As for clothes he wore a pink, sleeveless kimono, with pale red edges and decorated with small plum-coloured swirls, that went to his ankles. Around his waist was a simple white obi tied in a bow, and he wore a pair of light brown sandals with dark straps. He also wore a dark-coloured choker around his neck, "Wow miss, you're pretty." she told the androgynous boy, still only half awake, "So what are you doing out here...?"

"Naruto"

"So what are you doing out here Naruto?" the brunette asked her, "Oh I was training a bit because my sensei is out cold." she replied rubbing the back of her head, "What about you?"

"I was picking out herbs to help heal a friend of mine?"

"Oh yeah, how is Zabuza anyways? Sensei roughed him up pretty good right?"

"Yeah... Wait!" Naruto only got a second to turn and look at the boy before he had senbon against his neck, "Easy, easy, I'm not your enemy right now, no need to fight. Plus you knew it was me when you woke me up, you could have easily killed me then." she attempted at calming him down, "I guess..."

"So, what's your name?"

"Haku." he replied, "Well, its nice to meet you Haku-chan, do you need any help gathering herbs?" The boy only looked at her like she grew another head, "Why would you want to help me get him back into shape?"

"Well, I was hoping you could convince your friend to stop coming after Tazuna, I mean, someone like Gato would probably just come to kill you after you completed your objective so he didn't have to pay you." Haku took a moment to think over what he just said, '_Is he right? I mean, yeah Gato is a cheap man, but to do something like that... I guess I should tell Zabuza-sama about it._' "I'll talk to him." but as he looked up to face Naruto a mischievous smile came to his mind, leaning over he gave the blonde a peck on the lips, only to laugh at Naruto's dazed face afterward, he then made his way back out of the clearing, "I'll be here tomorrow if anything changes. Oh, and by the way, I'm a boy." Naruto waved her goodbye to Haku only to laugh herself, "No worries, I'm a girl." she replied with a smile, earning a blush from the boy.

Back at Tazuna's house...

"Sensei, I met up with the Hunter-nin." Kakashi looked down at his student with a curious gaze, "Oh? Did you now?" Walking over to her sensei's futon and sitting down next to him, she began to recap the event earlier this morning. After listening to the story and another moment to think to himself, he spoke up, "Its risky, I'll give you that. I'm not sure how much we can trust Zabuza, but I'm pretty sure what you said is true." giving another moment to take another sip of tea, he through over his student's idea, "I'll agree to you on this one, from the looks of what I know about your skills, I think you could soon be filling out the role of an assassination expert, which is good for this kind of job. If things go south, we simply vanish, other than that, we'll work with Zabuza and his apprentice to take out Gato." Naruto sat quiet next to her sensei, thinking over the plans that they would bring up to take down the company, it was a simple idea, the two teams world work at taking out the thugs in Gato's hideout, they would then take out all the money from the business itself, using that as a 'Gift' to konoha to better help convincing that Zabuza would be willing to take in the missing nin, luckily they did not have to worry about Haku all too much due to the fact he never became an official ninja. It was a good plan, but all in all, she could not shake the ill feeling that something was wrong. Kakashi looked over to his silent student watching the subtle twitches across her face betray her emotions.

"You alright?" he asked. Turning to look at her sensei's worried face she put up a smile, "All good, I'm going to head out with Tazuna for the day." Earning a nod from Kakashi, she left the house with Tazuna for the day.

The forest near Tazuna's house, the next day...

"You know, you really don't look like a girl." said a voice next to the sleeping blonde. with a blink of her eyes, she turned to look into the brunette sitting next to her, "and you really don't look like a boy." she replied with a tired smile, earning a similar smile in return. the two sat up against a larger tree like old friends, but when she looked up into the sky to see the sun shining brightly in the morning sun, the smile on her face grew slightly to remember the few nights she spent talking to Itachi those years ago.

"So, what he say?" she turned to the boy and asked him who seemed to gain another smile, "He agrees." with a fist pump into the air and a yell of 'Yatta' Naruto looked back at the boy next to her, "Say, can you keep a secret?" she asked with a smile, only to earn a confused look from her new friend, "Why?" to which she grinned, "You said earlier that I don't look like a girl right?" earning a nod from Haku, "Well, the truth is this is just an illusion." still keeping up her grin. He looked at her for a moment to feel the subtle layer of chakra around her, which was a hard attempt because Naruto had as much presence with her chakra as a plant. "Now that you mention it I can somewhat feel its presence, but what's it for?" Frowning at the question she looked towards the ground, "A while back I messed with something I probably shouldn't have, which changed how I looked. I use an illusion seal so people can recognise me and I don't like showing other people what I look like all too much." A simple thought appeared in the boys head, "You'll be beautiful no matter how you look." he encouraged with a smile, earning a slightly red-faced Naruto who decided to hide her face into her legs as she brought them up to her chest. "That was really cheesy." she mumbled still hiding her face in her legs. Lifting up her head so she was now shoulder to shoulder with Haku he held up a hand to her chest "Fuin kai." she said with barely a whisper. Haku heard the whisper only to look over at the redhead next to him, but one look into her violet eyes and his train of thought completely disappeared. Finally breaking away from her alluring eyes he let out a sigh, "I guess I was wrong, beautiful is too simple a word to describe you." looking out the corner of his eye at Naruto who's face now blended with her hair he let out a laugh, "You shouldn't be afraid to hide behind the illusion." he said with a smile, "I'm sure people will happily welcome you any way you look." but as soon as he mentioned that the red faced Naruto turned pale, "No, they'll just hate me more." she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to look up at Haku, his eyes showed the same loneliness and sorrow that she felt for before. "Hold out your hand." he asked, placing his own under the girl's outstretched hand she watched in fascination as the air above her hand froze into a flower, with a smile he picked the flower up and put it into her hair, "When I was young I learned how to control my Hyoton." he said, finishing attaching the flower, he leaned back against the tree, "I was so happy that I could make something like that, so I quickly ran inside the house to show my mother. But when I did she quickly told me never to use it again." he continued but his voiced became distant at reliving the memory, but he continued when he felt Naruto grab his hand, "It was already too late, in the time that I had gone back out to play my father rallied up a bunch of other villagers." by now Haku's hand was shaking but another look into Naruto's calm smile set him at ease, "When I came back I watched as they killed my mother right in front of me... after that he turned to me at started yelling and screaming at me, I was so scare the before I even realised what I did it was too late..." he held onto Naruto's hand tighter, "I killed them, and then I ran, I ran far away from there. It was a year later that Zabuza found me, I was sitting on the side of the rode freezing to death, kind of ironic isn't it." he finished with a small chuckle.

Closing his eyes and leaning his head back, he felt a weight against his chest, looking down he saw Naruto sitting comfortably in his lap leaning back against his chest, feeling confident he wrapped his own arms around Naruto waist basking in her warmth and he began to feel the loneliness void that was left slowly start to fade away, it wasnt a few minutes later that the two of them were sound asleep.

Naruto and Haku woke up to the sounds of two men giggling and the shutter of a camera going off, what they saw was what they least expected, Kakashi and Zabuza were standing up taking pictures of the two of them, but what Haku couldn't understand was why they were giggling like school girls. "Two girls having some late night fun out in the woods?" Kakashi asked as he looked down at them, hearing the tone in the man's voice Haku looked down at Naruto hoping to find his answer. As soon as he looked down at Naruto, who was still in his lap, he understood what they were talking about, with moan from Naruto as Haku tried to let go of her breast without waking her he failed miserably, "You like what you've got?" she said in a seductive tone leaning her head back to look at the boy, feeling much pleasure in teasing the innocent boy, but what she wasn't expecting was for him to be taking lessons from Hinata, with a small trickle of blood leading his nose he promptly fainted, much to the amusement of the three other members of the clearing.

Gato's Hideout, after Haku woke up...

The team stealthily moved through the halls of the building, silently taking out everyone they came across, they reached Gato's main room to find a surprise they were not expecting, in the room with Gato was a kiri hunter-nin, "Well, looks like you saved us the trouble of finding you." the businessman said with a evil grin, "There's your target, kill them!" she shouted at the hunter, who turned to look at Zabuza and the three others.

"Wait, Hunter-san, I'll come with you peacefully if you give me a few minutes to talk to my friend here, he said placing a hand on Haku, "These Konoha-nin are something else." he finished, leaving a wide-eyed Haku and Naruto, Kakashi only looked over to Zabuza with a sad smile, '_A brave man..._'

"Very well, I'll give you ten minutes, Hatake-san, I offer a truce to you and your two students in the meantime, I'll give you some privacy." he finished, leaving the room for the mean time.

The four people looked over at Gato with murder in their eyes.

After taking care of the corrupt businessman, the for sat down at the nearby table to discuss, more-so Zabuza leaving his will and some more minutes for him to talk with Haku, "So this is really it?" asked Kakashi as he looked over to the swordsman, "I guess so, at least I can die happy knowing that he'll have you two with him." giving a handshake to the man, the four waited for the hunter-nin to come in.

"You'll be coming back with me to kiri where you will stand trial for your crimes." with a nod from Zabuza, he said his farewells to his three friends and gave a hug to Haku, "Stay safe." he whispered into the boy's ear before disappearing with the hunter with a shushin, "Well, that was eventful."

Hokages office, after the arrival of Kakashi, Naruto, and Haku...

"...And then we left home." Kakashi said finishing the recap of the report to the elderly kage, who simply continued to some on his pipe, "Haku-san, how do you feel about becoming a Konoha-shinobi?" the man asked curious to boy's potential as a ninja, "I would be honored to serve as a Konoha shinobi." Hiruzen took a moment to think over the details of their mission once again before setting down his pipe and pulling a headband out of his desk, "Welcome to Konoha, Haku." he said presenting the hitai-ate with a smile, "I'm going to put you on a team under Kakashi with young Naruto here as a gennin, I'll see to it to find two another member so you can participate in the chunin exams coming up, I'm sure that you'll be more than ready for it."

With a bow, Kakashi and Haku left for him to show the Haku around Konoha, leaving Naruto to have a much needed conversation with the Hokage, "Jiji. I -uh.. I'm a..." Naruto stuttered, out somewhat embarassed to the topic she was approaching, while Hiruzen was casually drinking on some tea watching in amusement of Naruto stutter, but could only wonder what it was about.

"I'm a girl!" she finished off in a shout, trying to force the subject out of her system, to which Hiruzen, upon hearing those three words, spat out the tea he was drinking and two of the ANBU in the room quietly started coughing from surprise. "Well I can certainly say that was one of the things I least expected you to say, why didn't you say so earlier."

The girl quickly got embarrassed and started rubbing the back of her head, "Well, I didn't know... I thought I was a boy until only recently on the mission where Kakashi explained everything to me..." she finished off quietly, still embarrassed about the entire subject. Hiruzen was stunned but then simply placed his face into his hand, this was something that he never could have expected to hear from the now revealed girl in front of him, but those thoughts were interrupted by the shouts of a young child, "I'm going to take you down old man!" as the assailant burst through the doors. The child's plans were soon interrupted by his own faults as he tripped over his scarf and fell face-first onto the cold floor to which the two other visible occupants promptly sweatdropped to the antics of the young child. Looking up from the floor the child looked at the other member in the room besides his grandfather and with an accusing glare, pointed at her, "Hey you! You tripped me!" he accused.

"What! I did not you brat!" she yelled back at him with a hard glare. "I'm not a brat I'm the Hokage's grandson!" soon after shouting that he receives a fist to the face courtesy of an enraged girl, "Like I care 'ttebane!" she yelled at him before stomping out the door, "See you later Jiji!."

A/N

Short one but I had this lying on my desk for a while so I thought I would just post it. My other two stories are being a pain to write T-T


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